Chicory, chickpea and bacon soup

Never have I cooked with chicory. It's also a difficult vegetable to find. Waitrose was the only supermarket I managed to find it in.

I was curious to cook with it. I know it is also used in salads but this soup caught my eye. I made a few changes in the amount of chicory and chickpeas and it is a very good soup!

I used as a guide a recipe from www.gourmettraveller.com.au.

Serves: 4 persons

Ingredients:

• 1 bacon slice, chopped
• 200g onions (1 large onion), chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed
• 1 fresh rosemary sprig (I used 2 dried sprigs)
• 250g chickpeas, cooked
• 250g chicory
• 1 litre chicken stock
• olive oil to taste
• salt & pepper to taste

Method:

1. Chop the chicory.
   
   
   
   
   
   
2. In a frying pan, fry the onions, garlic, bacon and rosemary in olive oil until tender, about 10 min. Reserve.
   
   
   
   
   
   
3. Add half the chickpeas (125g) to a soup pan with the chicken stock. Let it reach boiling point and then blitz it.
4. Add the remaining chickpeas and the fried ingredients (onion, rosemary, bacon) and cook for a further 30 min.
   
   
   
5. Add salt & pepper to taste and serve hot.